The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) is pleased to host the retrospective exhibition of artwork by Master Sculptor, Ayokunle Odeleye. For over 30 years, Ayokunle has created monumental outdoor sculptures, bringing art into vital and interactive conversation with people all across the nation. His sculptures are not only reflections of the communities in which they are placed, they are often totems of inspiration, oasis' of beauty, in areas where the fluid and organic lines of his artwork is unexpected.

This exhibit, which includes models, drawings and photographs of sculpture commissioned for public spaces across the United States, represents an impressive body of work in a long career of art production by one of Georgia's celebrated Public Art specialists.

MOCA GA is especially excited about this exhibition as it offers the public the unique opportunity to view the many processes undertaken by a professional sculptor in the design and execution of diverse and monumental gateway structures that serve as architectural markers for community identity.

The accompanying artist talks and panel discussions scheduled for the exhibit offer insight into the artist creative process and the dynamic, ever changing phenomena of Public Art.

– Annette Cone-Skelton

President/CEO/Director

_____________________________________________

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ayokunle Odeleye has been working as a professional sculptor and arts educator for the past thirty nine years. He received a Bachelors Degree in Art Education from Howard University in 1973 and a Masters Degree in sculpture from Howard University in 1975. He has taught art at Dunbar High School, The Duke Ellington School for the Arts and Howard University in Washington D.C., and at Woodland Middle School, Spelman College and Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga. Currently, he is a senior Professor of Art at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia where he has been teaching for the past twenty four years.

He is the owner, designer and primary fabricator of Odeleye Sculpture Studios in Stone Mountain Georgia. This studio specializes in the creation of large scale commissioned sculptures for public spaces in a variety of media.

For the past thirty three years he has been designing and building large scale sculptures in bronze, stainless steel and a variety of hardwoods for clients across the breathe of the United States from Atlanta to Alaska. Odeleye’s work can currently be found in The Aurora Municipal Court facility in Aurora Colorado, historic memorial parks in Wilmington, North Carolina and Rockland County New York, a new psychiatric facility in Anchorage Alaska, a fire station in Prince George's County Maryland, a recreational facility in St. Petersburg Florida, a courthouse in Richmond Virginia, several communities in Atlanta, Georgia, a transit station in Dallas, Texas and a public park in downtown Pensacola, Florida, to name a few.

Currently, Ayokunle is creating a stainless steel and bronze sculpture for the City of Atlanta Public Art Program, to be placed at the intersection of Cascade Road and Benjamin E. Mays Boulevard. The sculpture, which also functions as a working sundial and light fixture, includes elements designed to honor significant individuals from the Cascade Road community whose scholarship and creativity has impacted the City of Atlanta and beyond.

He is a mentor to young artists, a Father, Husband and Teacher who has committed himself to artistic imagery which up lifts the African American community.